Corey won't have to deal with likes of Ce Ce in Sunday handicap

Another three-day race week at Gulfstream Park comes to an end Sunday with a well-matched field of fillies and mares clashing in the $55,000 Surfside, the highlight of a 10-race card that starts at 12:25 p.m. Eastern.

Corey, a respectable fourth behind Ce Ce last month in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney, will be getting sizable class relief when she faces six others in the Surfside going seven furlongs on the main track. The gray 4-year-old filly is being asked to carry high weight of 122 pounds, including jockey Edwin Gonzalez, under handicap conditions.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets.

Corey has won 7 of 18 career starts and earned $251,876 while steadily upping her Beyer Speed Figures of late. Three races back, she earned a career-best 82 in winning an April 23 handicap, and she went on to post an 81 when overmatched in the July 2 Princess Rooney won by Ce Ce, the 2021 female sprint champion.

“This is the right distance, and the timing between races is perfect,” said Peter Walder, who trains Corey for the EKB Stables of Eric Bachinsky. “She’s a special horse to us – she’s the first horse Eric ever owned, and everybody in the barn loves her.”

Restofthestory (post 1, Kevin Krigger), a sharp last-out winner for Eddie Plesa, and Don’t Get Khozy (post 7, Edgar Perez), first or second in 24 of 42 starts, are among the chief threats to Corey in the Surfside, for which post time is 4:42 p.m.

Two races earlier, Dean Delivers and Octane, two of the more well-regarded 3-year-olds on the year-round Gulfstream circuit, will meet for the first time in race 7, a $51,000 allowance with hybrid conditions. Dean Delivers was expected to scratch from the Benny the Bull on Saturday. He got a 98 Beyer in a last-out allowance romp, while Octane will be getting first-time Lasix when making his second start following a lengthy layoff.

Last year, Dean Delivers was second in the Dr. Fager, the first leg of the Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-old statebreds, but did not race in the next two legs, the Affirmed and In Reality, both of them won by Octane, an Arindel homebred.

Both of the co-features are part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 5-10) that starts Sunday with an empty jackpot following a Saturday forceout.

A 70 percent chance of rain is in the South Florida forecast for Sunday. Live action resumes Friday after four dark days.